Women, especially young women, have increasing infection rates from HIV/AIDS and the death rate among women is now almost as high as men.

The impact of gender in fuelling HIV/AIDS has become a fundamental aspect of addressing the pandemic. It is clear that gender plays a pivotal role in how women and men respond to counselling, testing, treatment, care and prevention programmes. This report contains the presentations delivered at the gender and HIV/AIDS-themed sessions held during the 3rd African Conference of the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA), held in Dakar, in October 2005.

Current trends of HIV transmission and prevalence clearly show that the epidemic is fuelled by gender-based vulnerabilities. Close to 60 per cent of adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and almost 75 per cent of young people living with HIV in southern Africa are female.

Gender issues are central to the causes and impact of the ongoing AIDS epidemic. The editors bring together cutting edge contemporary scholarship on gender and AIDS in one volume. They address questions related to gender and sexuality, how women and men live the epidemic differently and how such differences lead to different outcomes. The volume joins research on Africa, Asia and Latin America and illustrates how the epidemic has different gendered characteristics, causes and consequences in different regions. Collectively, the chapters demonstrate the fundamental ways that gender influences the spread of the disease, its impact and the success of prevention efforts. This scholarly, interdisciplinary volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the themes and issues of gender, AIDS and global public health and informs students, policy makers and practitioners of the complexity of the gendered nature of AIDS.